For hours, John A. Pernorio repeatedly mashed the call button at his bedside in the Heritage Hills nursing home in Rhode Island. A retired truck driver, he had injured his spine in a fall on the job decades earlier and could no longer walk. “I spent 21 hours a day in bed.”Payroll records show that during his stay at Heritage Hills, daily aide staffing levels were 25 percent below the minimums under state law. The nursing home said it provided high-quality care to all residents. Regardless, it wasn’t in trouble with the state, because Rhode Island does not enforce its staffing rule.

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Persons: John A, he’d, ”, Pernorio, “ Organizations: Heritage Hills, Heritage Locations: Rhode Island